A lot of people want to know what is going on inside the Department of Homeland Security. Since its inception, the DHS has attracted an unusually high number of Freedom of Information requests compared with other departments, according to a News 21 review.
In Fiscal 2005, the department received 163,016 new requests for undisclosed information.
That compares with 81,304 at the Department of Defense, 51,516 at the department of Agriculture, and 4,602 at the Department of State. The pattern is the same for requests that were still pending at the end of fiscal year 2004. Homeland Security still had 45,701 requests pending compared with 12,424 at the Department of Defense, 2,371 at the Department of Agriculture, and 1,996 at the Department of State.
The percentage of requests partially or totally denied by DHS is also high. For Fiscal 2005, for instance, out of 78,089 initial requests that were settled without appeal, DHS partially denied 62% and totally denied 1%, for a total of 63%.
By comparison, the Defense Department partially or totally denied only 31% of information requests and the Department of Agriculture denied only 6% of requests received. The percentage of denials at the State Department was also high, however, at 70% of total requests (initial requests don’t include those that were subsequently appealed or which are undergoing other processing).
The Freedom of Information Act, which mandates that federal agencies comply with citizen requests for government records, was first passed by Congress in 1966. But not all government information is available to the public. To protect the interests of national defense, foreign policy and personal privacy, the Freedom of Information Act established nine exemptions.
Each department or agency keeps a record of the number of requests that were fully or partially denied and by which exemption. The exemptions most used by the Department of Homeland Security in fiscal year 2005 involve an agency’s personnel rules, internal governments and personal privacy.
The exemption used most often by DHS – 33,700 times – denies access to documents related only to internal personnel rules. The department used another 32,981 exemptions to deny requests for documents that are inter- or intra-agency memoranda, or letters that would be protected under court of law. And it used another 24,781 times the exemption that forbids permission to view personal, medical or other similar information whose disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
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JC Garrett, 2006-09-18 14:57:25 -- Flag for review
Since 9/11, the rights of the American citizen have been going the way of the Dodo bird, and if we don't reevaluate the amount of freedom we are prepared to cede in exchange for a (false) feeling of added security, we will wake up one day to find ourselves living in a country that has no resemblence to America. Over-classification of documents and other information has become a huge problem. The whole reason for the Freedom of Information Act is for the normal, everyday American Citizen to be informed of exactly what our democratically elected officials are doing and why they are doing it. If we are kept in the dark about the important inner workings of our government, we have little basis upon which to form adequate, informed opinions that determine who we vote for, what companies we buy from, what movements we contribute our time and money to, which proposed legislations we support - and on and on.
Americans have never been ones to go quietly into the night, or to volunteer to be lambs led to the slaughter for reasons unbeknownst to us - we demand information and accountability. State secrets? National security? At this point in time, our national security is threatened more by our nation's government than at any other time in the past century. Our fundamental rights afforded to us by the Constitution are in more danger now than at any time since it was ratified. Very few things can legitimately be deemed so sensitive to the preservation of national security that the American public should not be aware of them. Military strategy of an immediately tactical nature, identities of covert operatives, exact locations of strategic forces and bases, designs and blueprints of our newest weapons, the exact technical workings of new warfare technology - all these things and others like them are necessary to protect. The failings, mistakes, and felonies of public officials are not. Documents with content likely to embarrass or implicate politicians, appointees, and corporations are not. The existence of domestic surveillance programs, illegal searches and seizures, the arrest and prolonged detainment of citizens and legal foreign nationals without any charge of a crime are not. The suppression of free speech and a free press, government censorship, cronyism, unethical conduct, secret meetings between public officials and large corporations for the purpose of determining which policies will put the most money into both of their respective pockets is not. The torture and/or summary executions of captured "enemy combatants", or the "rendition" of these prisoners to other countries to "outsource" this type of activity is not a legitimate circumstance to classify information and deny the American public the rights of access guaranteed by the Constitution and Freedom of Information Act. It's time to reclaim our country. It's time for all American Citizens to DEMAND accountability from ALL our governmental entities. Republican/Democrat, Left/Right, Christian/Jew/Muslim/Atheist, Black/White/Brown/Yellow/Purple - we are ALL in the same boat - that boat is America. And ALL of us have the responsibility to do something about the tidal wave of injustice, elitism, and arrogance that is bearing down on us. Or, sadly but certainly -- this boat is going to sink.
Alex, 2007-11-11 19:27:04 -- Flag for review
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